Watch the 1960s unfold day by day. A news feed for what happened 46 years ago today in the Cold War, politics, science, the arts, religion, leisure and society.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

October 4, 1960: Khrushchev Behavior at UN Analyzed, 'Currier Sphere' Launch Marks Third Year of Space Age

A "realistic approach" to the motives behind Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's behavior at the United Nations concludes that he is attempting to persuade newly independent nations that they should choose the communist path, according to an analysis in today's New York Times.

But it is the Soviet split with China that motivates "his powerful attack on colonialism and his persistent diplomatic wooing of the Asian and African countries," Harrison Salisbury reports. Khrushchev's attempt to oust Dag Hammarskjold, the secretary general, is an effort to shift power in the UN to the communist and neutral states, he writes.

"Many diplomats believe Mr. Khrushchev is certain to succeed eventually in forcing the resignation of Mr. Hammarskjold, even though the Soviet premier has mustered little support for his plan to alter the secretariat."

As to the Soviet leaders "parliamentary conduct," including interrupting speakers, "flail[ing] about with his arms as he speaks" and "the two-fisted pounding of tables," which has "never before been seen nor heard in the refined atmosphere" of the UN, these are, for him, "good parliamentary tactics. He has never been part of a parliament in which more than one party has operated."

But his "main and continuing purpose" is "to advance his ideas on disarmament and to remove, if possible, impediments to future big-power discussions. ... He believes that for such talks to be possible the debris left by the collapse of the summit talks in May must be cleared away."

In other news for this day in 1960:

A new U.S. communications satellite launched today marked the third anniversary of the space age. The "currier sphere" was used by President Eisenhower to send a message to Secretary of State Christian Herter in New York.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan proposed to Khrushchev that negotiations on Berlin be resumed in January.

India was reported to be close to concluding a deal with the Soviet Union for military aid to resist Chinese Reds.

People who protested in New York against the Yugoslavian President, Tito, said their relatives in Yugoslavia were facing reprisals.

A Eastern Air Lines flight taking off from Boston crashed in the nearby harbor. The death toll was put at 61.

The price of food will increase 25 percent if Sen. John F. Kennedy is elected president, Vice President Richard Nixon said, criticizing his opponent's farm policies as he campaigned in New Jersey.

Sen. Kennedy, in Indianapolis, said he agrees with President Eisenhower's decision not to meet Khrushchev during the Soviet leaders extended stay in the U.S.

A new survey has found that Negroes are getting more higher-level federal jobs.

Mail order sales, spurred by the new technique of selling by telephone, have shown sharp gains.